17 points; that’s all there is between the championship leader and second place in the Craftsman Truck Series. At Charlotte Motor Speedway, only two drivers led laps, with Layne Riggs eventually coming out on top in the No. 34 Front Row Motorsports Ford truck. Kaden Honeycutt led the most laps but made a mistake that he will be rueing with just four races to go. 

Honeycutt, in the No. 11 Tricon Garage Toyota, led 85 laps in Charlotte but couldn’t seal the deal, and he spoke about it with great regret post-race to the media, including Bob Pockrass. 

“It’s been no different with me and him for the last five years, so it’s all good,” Honeycut said. “I got him a little bit of Kansas, and he was blocking, and then I clipped him at Kansas, and then I was blocking, and he clipped me. So I thought it was a great race. I gathered it up, and we raced it really hard out there at the end. I feel like I lost the race. Personally. I don’t think he took the win away from me. I think I just drove myself straight out of it. So yeah, we’ll figure it out. I’ll execute better and go to Phoenix. I know I got a 17-point lead, but my picture of myself is last, and every point matters. Stages and winning solves everything. My dad told me ‘Winning solves everything,’ and you’ve seen that; you saw it last week, just the major points gain. So we’re just next four weeks focus on winning. That’s it.”

It all happened with seven laps to go. Riggs was closing in on Honeycutt and putting pressure on the Toyota driver. Both the No. 11 and the No. 34 were running the outside line when Honeycutt drove into the corner a bit too hard and slid his right rear into the outside wall.

Riggs, who held onto the lead thereafter, picked up the checkered flag and went straight into the stands. The North Carolina-born driver took a moment to celebrate with the fans at Charlotte, the closest and most iconic track to his home. 

Riggs finished the race with 74 points after he won the first stage and the race, while Honeycutt, who would go on to finish 3rd, ended the day with 54 points, having won stage two and finished second in stage one. 

Charlotte was the third race in the seven-race Chase calendar in the truck series. While Riggs took victory in Charlotte, it was Honeycutt who entered the race on the back of a solid points day in Kansas, where he won while Riggs finished down in 19th. Honeycutt picked up 75 points in Kansas while Riggs managed only 35.

Before that, in Bristol, neither driver won. Honeycutt finished 8th with 47 points, and for Riggs it was a 32nd-place finish, although he managed to pick up 25 points. 

The Truck Series battle will go right down to the wire. It is likely to be either Honeycutt or Riggs who wins the championship as the next best; in third is Chandler Smith, who is 77 points back of Honeycutt. For Smith to enter the conversation, he will need more than just one win; he will need Riggs and Honeycutt to have low-scoring days.

Phoenix is where the Chase continues in the Truck Series. Then will come Talladega, where no predictions can be made. A visit to Martinsville will serve as the penultimate race before the final showdown in Homestead.

Riggs has been more dominant in terms of wins with seven wins compared to Honeycutt’s three. Honeycutt, however, has shown greater consistency. The Toyota driver has 13 top-five finishes and 16 top-ten finishes, while Riggs has 12 top-tens, 11 of which he finished in the top five. 

The battle is getting heated up between the Toyota and Ford drivers, and there is no way to predict which way the pendulum will swing next.